Not a bad kit. I’ve got one on my shelf waiting to be finished.
Good job!
Thanks!
Looks very good! Is that the “vintage” Leopard I kit from Tamiya? I started that kit this past summer and it is awaiting paint.
tjs
I believe that your kit was the old Leopard 1A4. Their older kit of the Leopard 1 had detail problems. This kit was better.
Bill
Well I made that kit about 25 years ago and I don’t recall any assembly issues at all!
I agree, I said that the Tamiya 1/35 Leopard I kit suffered from detail problems, but that I had never heard of any issues with their Leopard 1A4 that you built. Your build was a good job!
Bill
Thanks!the dry brushing of Model Master earth really made the details pop!
I agree, great job. I love seeing old model kits being built way past their “sell by” date.
I really got started in 1/35 scale armor modeling with these original Tamiya kits. They built easily and were well down.
Yes!
This kit has a lot of detail omissions as well. It’s a nice kit, but needs some help. The Italeri Leopard 1A4 kit if the same vintage is far better detailed.
It may be omitting some details but it does still have a great shelf presence just for display. I’ve got the RoG kit in my stash and it looks to be quite well detailed as well, like the Italleri.
The RoG M-48A2GA2 builds up as a really good shelf display kit and looks amazing with some L&L tracks fitted.
So even though the old Tamiya Leopard A4 isn’t the most accurate kit, it still stands on its own right out of the box. It’s a solid kit and builds up very well.
But, we weren’t debating that were we?
That Leopard, along with their M47 Patton, are arguably two of their best kits to come out in the 1980s. Thank goodness for Testors yellow box kits, great kits available at American prices. And the detail instructions inside were awesome.
The Testors “Yellow Box” kits were simply reboxed Italeri kits. During the 1980s and 1990s they were considered to be superior to everything on the market. Their kits of the M-47 Patton and their various Leopard 1 kits were among the best armor kits available. According to www.Leopardclub.ca.com, they still stand up today.
Bill Morrison
That’s why I said “great kits available at American prices.” They tended to be cheaper than Tamiya kits and the exact same Italeri kit in an Italeri box.
Similarly, when AMT/Ertl released some of the Esci armor kits, they were the exact same plastic in a different box at a lower price.
And not all yellow box kits were Italeri kits. Peerless Max, Fujimi, Hawk, ITC all made some appearances in Testors yellow boxes.
Kits like the V-1 Buzz Bomb and Oka, the Gee-Bee were Hawk kits. The Dodge WC kits (there were like a dozen various BEEPs, Big Shot, Command Car, Anti-tank, ambulance, etc.) and many of the towed artillery were originally Peerless Max kits.
Looks cool!
My first 1/35th kit was one of the Testors/Italeri ‘Yellow Box’ kits.